Russian President Vladimir Putin called on Roscosmos to meet deadlines for the nation’s future Angara, Soyuz-5 and “super-heavy class” rockets while fixing quality-control issues that have dogged Russian spacecraft and launch vehicles in recent years.

In his first interview as head of Russia’s Roscosmos space corporation, Dmitry Rogozin confirmed reports of the venerable Proton rocket’s coming demise and suggested Russia is looking to make its segment of the ISS more autonomous.

Those who loathe or love a Space Force “separate but equal” to the Air Force must think and act decisively and quickly. Regardless of whether the Space Force actually materializes, deliberation alone could finally spring us into action to deal with the looming threat of space Pearl Harbor.

While Angola’s first telecom satellite, Angosat-1, failed not long after reaching orbit late last year, the sub-Saharan African nation will get a second shot at satellite ownership with the planned 2020 launch of Angosat-2.

Bombastic and colorful, Rogozin’s international profile shot up significantly in 2014 when, in response to the first round of Western sanctions against Moscow for its annexation of Crimea, he tweeted that NASA could use a trampoline to reach the International Space Station.

To prevent collisions in space, nations with advanced orbital monitoring abilities need to share data with each other. Russia, being skilled in space situational awareness (SSA), should be part of the global effort to protect the space environment, experts said March 15 at the Satellite 2018 conference here.

An insurance company paid Astro Digital’s claim for the loss of two cubesats sent into orbit on a Russian Soyuz rocket after the Earth imaging and analysis company proved the failure stemmed from a launch problem, according to two space industry executives.